Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) fanned the Ted Cruz-birther flames yet again, telling Fox News Monday that the Texas senator is a “natural-born Canadian” and that it’s up to the courts to decide whether Cruz is eligible for president.
“Cruz is a natural-born Canadian,” Paul said, according to CNN. “He was naturally born there. The question is, can you be natural-born Canadian and natural-born American at the same time? Maybe, but I think the courts will have to decide it, because it’s never really been decided.”
“For traditional citizenship it always has been (your parent), but the only part of the Constitution that says ‘natural-born’ is with regard to the President. So it appears to be a unique qualification and most people have interpreted they had to be born in the U.S. until recently,” Paul said on Fox. “So I think eventually the Supreme Court will probably have to decide it.”
Last week, Paul said that Cruz “is qualified and would make the cut to be prime minister of Canada.”
The question of Cruz’s Canadian birth — he was born to a U.S. mother in Canada, which at the time, legally made him a U.S. citizen — has come to the forefront of the 2016 race after Cruz’s chief rival Donald Trump called it it a “a very precarious” situation.
Plenty of GOP candidates and Republicans have defended Cruz’s eligibility, but Trump and others are suggesting that if he becomes the nominee Democrats will sue to block his candidacy.
Cruz has dismissed the idea that he is not a natural-born citizen as “political noise.”
